


A Second Family

by auri_mynonys



Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Incest, Minor Character Death, Parent/Child Incest, Power Imbalance, Pseudo-Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-03-15 18:54:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3458075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auri_mynonys/pseuds/auri_mynonys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Julem. AU. Set in the Price of Youth universe, very early on in Jupiter's captivity. Jupiter's mother is murdered, but Balem is not responsible - no matter how much Jupiter longs to blame him. Balem offers comfort in the only way he knows how.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Second Family

**Author's Note:**

> Just a mini ficlet written with a prompt post on tumblr. The prompt for this was "things you said after you kissed me."

Jupiter has been with him a year when the news arrives. Like a ghost, she trails his halls alone and rarely comes when called - and like an inconvenient guest, she picks the worst times at which to appear before him.

She comes first to him, before she has a moment to grieve. She is fueled only by anger then, storming through the doors with her battered cell phone clutched in her hand.

Balem lifts a brow at the sight of her, but does not rise. “Jupiter,” he says, his hoarse whisper echoing in the vast chamber in which he sits. “You have decided to come out at last.”

Jupiter does not reply to the remark, storming up the steps of the dais to where he sits. “Did you do this?” she asks, raising her cell phone like a weapon. “ _Did you?!_ ”

Balem glances idly to the phone. “If your primitive device is broken, there are newer, quicker methods of communication I might gladly - “

Jupiter screams in rage and tosses the phone aside. Seconds later, her palm makes contact with Balem’s cheek, its ringing drowning out the echo of his voice. 

Balem stares, open-mouthed, raising a hand to his face. Jupiter has said and done many things to him in their short acquaintance, but this is the first time she has dared to hit him.

"Don’t you  _dare_  play games with me,” Jupiter snarls, her eyes wide and glassy and a little mad. “Did you kill her, Balem?  _Did you kill my mother_?”

Balem lets his hand drop, only a slight twitching of his brows conveying his surprise. “Your mother is dead?”

Jupiter looks for a moment as though it is she who has been slapped. Clearly she had expected a confession, and if Balem had been responsible, she would most certainly have gotten one. She knows it, too; knows that, unlike his siblings, Balem is less inclined to lies and more to threats and cool intimidation. She must have known, even before she entered, that this crime could not fall at his hand.

Her expression crumples, and she falls to the floor in front of him with a heaving sob. “I thought - ” she gasps, clutching at the floor. “I thought you - who else could have - oh,  _god_  - !”

Chicanery hovers nearby, looking uncertainly between Jupiter and Balem. “My lord, should I…?”

Balem waves him off. “Find out what happened,” he says softly. “Inform me of the details later.”

Chicanery glances to Jupiter with some distaste. “Shall I have her removed?” he asks.

"No!" Balem is sharper than he intends with his command, and Chicanery blinks - the closest he ever comes to flinching these days. "No," Balem says, his voice softening. "No, let her stay."

Chicanery bows and turns, hands folded behind his back.

Balem has never comforted a grieving person before, nor has he ever been comforted in his own grief. For a moment, he hesitates, looming above Jupiter. He searches the room for any wayward servants, but he and Jupiter are completely alone. Slowly, he lowers himself to the floor where Jupiter still lies, sobbing onto the cold glass. His fingers flutter above Jupiter’s head for a moment; then, cautiously, he lays his hand against her hair. “I loved my mother,” he says; and he remembers her face then, old but still beautiful, broken and bleeding upon the floor.

Jupiter seems to go still beneath his touch, her sobs fading into soft, pained sniffles. “I loved my mother too,” she whispers, her voice breaking. “I loved her so much…”

She weeps again, loudly, and Balem flinches, his fingers tightening upon her hair. He remembers this pain, this agony: remembers sobbing at his mother’s side, clutching her close, kissing her cooling face and praying she would awaken.

This is a different sort of grief, he supposes - not the grief of the responsible, but the sorrow of the surprised. Still, there is something he recognizes in it, and it is this he responds to, soothing this ghost of his mother with tender hands.

"She was my family," Jupiter whispers. "My whole world…"

Something like jealousy burns in Balem’s chest. He takes her by the arms and pulls her to her knees, her cheeks streaked with tears. He lays his hand against her face, wiping a tear’s long trail away with his thumb. “You have another family,” he says. “Another world that is open to you…”

Jupiter frowns, her lips parting; and in that instant, Balem finds he cannot resist her anymore. He leans in and presses his mouth to hers, a trembling, desperate kiss - their first. He kisses her as if by doing so, he might remove her grief, replacing it with love for him - him, and none other.  _Please..._

For one glorious instant, Jupiter sinks against him, leaning into the kiss with a hungry, desperate cry. Balem responds greedily, tearing every last instant from the kiss that he can -

Then Jupiter rips herself away from him, crawling backwards across the floor.

"My mother is dead," she says, horror in her eyes. "My mother is dead, and you think that  _you_  can replace her? That  _you_  can be my family? God, you’re sick - you’re  _sick_  -!”

Balem clenches his teeth, rising slowly to his feet. He towers above her now, his shadow blocking out the light. “I offer you solace,” he says, his voice cold and detached. “I offer you comfort. I offer you a way to get back what you have lost. What in that is sick? Is this not what you require to abandon your grief?”

Jupiter shakes her head, her eyes glassy. “You’re a damn fucking monster,” she says. “You disgust me.”

Balem steps towards her, aghast. “Disgust you?” he whispers. “ _DISGUST YOU?!_ I was  _made_  for you!”

Jupiter flinches, scrambling to her feet. “You were made for Seraphi,” she says. “And like my mother, she’s dead. She’s gone. She’s never coming back.”

The words are weapons, but they miss their mark. They cut Jupiter far deeper than they cut Balem. He only laughs bitterly, gesturing to Jupiter. “But she has come back,” he says. “You are her.  _You are her_!” 

The sudden shout makes Jupiter stumble backwards, her breath coming in hitched, panicked gasps. Balem takes another step closer, curling his fingers into fists when she recoils. “Some part of you would happily take what I am offering,” he hisses, “and even you cannot deny it! If I am the monster, Jupiter, then what does that make  _you_?”

Jupiter swallows, shuddering. For the first time, she turns tail and runs like a coward. Balem starts after her with a cry. His hands burn and itch where they touched her, and his mouth aches painfully.  _So close… so close…_

He reaches out for her, but she forces the door to close before he can reach her. He slams painfully against the hard metal, hands scraping against the door’s elaborate carving of his insignia. “Jupiter!” he screams, banging a fist into the door. “ _JUPITER_!”

But she does not stop running, and Balem sinks to the ground with a small, pained cry, a sob very much like Jupiter’s own welling up in his chest.


End file.
